How Scotland is leading the way in data for public good

Sian Basker, Co CEO at Data Orchard and Shona Nichol, Head of Data Standards at Scottish Government, reflect on the drive and change happening in Scotland around data for public good.

Taking the lead in data maturity

Data Orchard has been measuring and benchmarking data maturity in organisations since 2019.  A couple of years ago, we noticed a trend – Scotland seemed to be ahead of the game. It’s no surprise that we have so many Scottish organisations in our benchmarking dataset – they make up 9% of the global benchmarking data – because the Scottish Government has been taking cohorts of public sector organisations through the assessment process since 2021.

How Scotland’s public and not-for-profit sectors compare

The Scottish Government’s investment in the public sector appears to be showing dividends. Having engaged over 5,600 staff from more than 40 organisations, we have a deep and rich picture of data maturity. For the not-for-profit sector, there’s been less engagement (233 staff from 30 organisations) and a more mixed picture. Yet, many charities are data maturity pioneers.

Pioneers in the charity sector

Mhoraig Green

Citizens Advice Scotland – Insights, AI, and Forecasting

Mhoraig Green is Head of Strategy, Governance, Performance and Risk at Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS), which provides support to a network of almost 60 Citizens Advice Bureaux.

Mhoraig was among the first to complete the ‘Data for Leaders’ training programme in 2023.  She said: “The course came along at just the right time and has given me important tools to drive forward our work with data…”.

Last year, CAS focused on growing its data team and developing specialist skills. This included supporting a staff member to take on a Graduate Apprenticeship in AI and Data Science, and developing expertise around data protection and ethics. They led some groundbreaking work with AI to identify vulnerable clients, and launched a quarterly data and insights webinar ‘ForeCASt’, on issues affecting people in Scotland, such as cost of living analysis, food insecurity, money and debt, and an energy crisis special.

This year, the focus on skills continues, along with a review of tools for data processing and developing a longer term data strategy.

Keith Scott

Myeloma UK – data definition, semantic models and powerful dashboards

Myeloma UK, headquartered in Edinburgh, supports people affected by Myeloma – a type of blood cancer – to get support, treatments and information. Keith Scott, Head of Data Management, leads their data team. In early 2024, all staff participated in an organisation-wide data maturity assessment. The findings helped shape and build support for their data strategy, which focused on skills, analysis and culture. Over the last year, they’ve delivered a data skills training programme, worked on data governance and improved data definition. They’ve prioritised making data more accessible to staff: lots of data visualisation projects; building useful dashboards using Power BI and fabric semantic models, especially around income generation; and – importantly – a big strategic focus on impact measurement. You can watch Keith’s presentation about their data maturity journey here.

Joan McNeill

Clan Childlaw – building a data-driven culture of curiosity, analysis and action

Clan Childlaw is Scotland’s law centre for children and young people. Joan McNeill, Director of Business Performance, is also among Data Orchard’s Data for Leaders alumni and has led the charity’s data strategy over the last couple of years. Joan tells us “We’ve made some steady progress... We’ve set up a data governance group and reviewed data capture in our helpline service, using data action stories to inform our work. The team is getting more curious about data and, as we’re putting a focus on reporting, we’re getting better at analysis. We’ve also been doing a lot of training and building data into job descriptions and work plans.”

Pioneers in the public sector

The Scottish Government’s Data Maturity Programme helps public sector organisations understand where they are, what they want to achieve with data and how to set achievable outcomes. Over 40 organisations of all sizes have participated in five cohorts since 2021.

The programme guides participants through three stages – preparation, learning and planning – with space and time to focus on the outcomes organisations want. Its value is demonstrated in immediate benefits. It:

• Improves data awareness, culture and engagement internally 

• Identifies priority areas

• Provides guidance on developing roadmap/action plan

• Builds knowledge and skills for data project teams and others 

• Provides access to alumni community and ongoing advice, training, resources, Scottish Government data experts and peer networking

The expected long term benefits include:

• More evidence-based decision making

• Greater transparency (internally and externally)

• Improved data skills

• Opportunities for innovation (readiness for AI)

Here are some example case studies from the cohorts:

South Ayrshire Council – better conversations, empathy maps and data-informed decision making

South Ayrshire Council is one of 32 local authorities in Scotland. Their assessment findings formed the basis of a practical and evolving Data Plan. The plan reframed the identified issues to consider: How might we get leadership, managers and elected members more invested in data?

Currently the focus is on: 

• Developing high-level training plans that will help raise awareness and encourage data conversations across leadership, corporate/central employees and frontline/operational employees; 

• Engagement with frontline services, developing an ‘empathy map’ of what staff hear/see/do/say in relation to data and what their pains and gains are;

• Exploring a data scoring system as part of their corporate decision-making process with elected members.

National Services Scotland – a focus on data governance

NSS provides strategic support services and expert advice for the NHS in Scotland. They used the findings from their first data maturity assessment (in 2023) as a baseline and concentrated on data governance. The data governance team used the results to engage with each Directorate to create individual data improvement plans and then created an overall organisational data improvement plan for the NSS. This is a key step towards a more data-driven culture. They’ll be carrying out a second assessment in 2025, to re-evaluate where NSS is on the maturity journey and (hopefully) show the impact of their efforts so far.

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) – data audit, skills development and communications

SPSO used their data maturity assessment findings and cohort guidance to create a leadership-approved data strategy. Since then they’ve:

• Completed a data audit

• Launched a Data Working Group (DWG)

• Created an online data training programme for all staff, due to launch shortly

• Identified and prioritised data-related projects

• Started good practice data news – to communicate progress and good practice internally

• And plan to refresh their data strategy during 2025/26.

What next?

Perhaps the most exciting thing happening in Scotland right now is the creation of a progressive vision for data, emphasising citizen empowerment, societal benefit and commitment to future generations, and involving collaboration across sectors. 

As well as continuing to partner with the Scottish Government, Data Orchard is looking forward to exploring how to advance data maturity in the charity and social enterprise sector with sector leads in Scotland.  

Sian Basker, Shona Nicol and Mhoraig Green will be on the panel for the Data Maturity session at Holyrood’s Public Sector Data Summit on 13 March 2025. It’s free for people working in charities, social enterprises and public sector organisations. We hope to see you there!